Toshiba First With 8-Series SLI For Notebooks

Disappointed with nVidia's current notebook graphics offerings? Well, a solution may be at hand.

If you happen to live in the US of A and have a spare $1,999 to blow, you could do a lot worse than invest in a Toshiba Satellite X205 – allow me to explain. While we already know of the benefits of SLI on both the desktop and notebook fronts, it has taken until now for the technology to make its way to any of nVidia’s current 8-series mobile parts. With the X205, Toshiba is claiming the crown of the first manufacturer to offer DX10 capable SLI in a notebook

For your cash you’ll be pulling down not one, but two 8600M GTs with 512MB of dedicated RAM each, powering a 17in, 1,440 x 900 screen (why not WSXGA?), 2.00GHz T7300 and 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM. Also onboard is an HD DVD-ROM drive (again, calling the lack of a 1,920 x 1,200 screen into question), HDMI-out means you can play 1080p HD DVDs on a TV should you so with and there are dual 120GB hard drives, configurable in either raid 0 or 1.

While the particular system currently on offer is a slightly dubious mix of hardware, not to mention not being available in the UK, from past experience we feel fairly confident is thinking that Toshiba will be rectifying both issues in the not-too-distant future. Moreover, we can expect to see many more manufacturers offering 8-series SLI notebooks over the coming weeks.

As impressed as we have been by the current raft of gaming notebooks on the market, the disappointing performance of nVidia’s mid-range graphics solutions has led us to the conclusion that last generation’s offerings still provide a better experience. The arrival of SLI options at the party, then should help liven things up.